The Bechdel Cast - Black Lives Matter

Episode Date: June 4, 2020

This is a time to listen to and uplift black voices. We were unsure whether to release this week, but ultimately we want to make sure we are using every inch of our platform to make sure you have the resources we do: everywhere you can donate, protesting basics, and how to start educating yourself to be a more effective and informed ally. We have a ton to learn, and are starting by sharing resources. Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties

you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Nerves the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption. They were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks everywhere. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everybody, this is Matt Rogers. And Bowen Yang. We've got some exciting news for you. You know we're always bringing you the best guests, right?

Well, this week we're taking it to the next level. The one, the only, Katherine Hahn is joining us on Lost Culture East. That's right, the queen of comedy herself. Get ready for a conversation that's as hilarious as it is insightful. Tune in for all the laughs, the stories, and of course, the culture. Don't miss Katherine Hahn on Las Culturistas.

Listen to Las Culturistas on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Bechtelcast. My name is Jamie. My name is Caitlin. And it's been a fucking week. If you're listening to this the day and week it comes out, you'll certainly know why.

There has been massive demonstrations for the Black Lives Matter movement in response to the murder of George Floyd, of Breonna Taylor, of Ahmaud Arbery, and on and on in the past week. And there has been just truly a huge burst in righteous anger in issues that have been, you know, brewing in American history for as long as American history has been happening. Yes.

So if you're listening to this episode when it comes out you know that already and if you're listening to this episode in the future you also know that so we we were genuinely like not sure should we release an episode this week does it make sense for us to do but we decided that that we should it's not obviously it's not going to be a normal episode we're not going to be talking about a movie this week. But we will be talking because we want to respect the fact that we have a platform and we have listeners that we've found over the years are, I mean, our listeners are the best. And we've learned so much from you.

And it sounds like, you know, that goes both ways. And we want to continue to do that through everything. And so here we are. Yeah, so more or less, we wanted to take this opportunity to just provide information about resources, things you can do to be a better ally, things you can do to be actively anti-racist, places you can donate to, things like that. So we are, like Jamie said, we're using our platform to inform and educate. And hopefully, yeah, hopefully you'll find some, I know there's so much information going around already. I'm sure you already have heard different things you can do, but no harm in spreading more information as long as that information is good. So that's what we're doing

today. And we also want to just, I guess, publicly express our continued commitment to doing better. And, you know, I mean, I mean, from the beginning of this show, I think that we have both learned so much in so many areas of analysis, but especially with this show, I think that I've, I've personally learned a ton through our guests and through our research and through our talks about the importance of intersectionalism where, you know, we started this show with the idea of we want to analyze movies from a feminist perspective. And feminism is wonderful, and we are deeply committed to it, but it has deeply entrenched roots in erasing black women and erasing all non-white women and only servicing white women. even the core of feminist rhetoric erases so much. And particularly black women and particularly non-white and queer women.

I mean, we are committed to doing better. Yes. And to all of our listeners, we appreciate you being on the ride with us. And I mean, I personally really love how great our listeners have been over the years about just you know checking us when we fuck up and it genuinely helps and i think that i know that it will continue to help so for sure first we just want to express particularly to our black listeners but to all of our listeners, a huge amount of love and just the open line of communication. We're here, we're listening. We want to do better for you,

and we want to do better by you. And so we love you and we're here. Yes, indeed. And thank you again for your patience with us as we have grown and you know just tried to navigate our jobs you know yeah totally it's been so helpful the feedback that we've gotten over the years of course we do have blind spots that we've been working diligently to make more and more narrow over the course of the show right um but any guidance is still helpful not that it's should be you know your responsibility or burden to like oh no we've entered a danger zone i mean there it's never been on our listeners to educate us no but when our listeners have felt like you know hey i'm gonna take this opportunity to say you're fucking wrong and here is what you need to know you know we will

never you know come at our fan base being like educate us we're idiots right but but we do appreciate when you know it's it's the parasocial relationship of a lifetime that we're on right now. And from the bottom of our hearts, it does mean a lot to us when, if we fuck up and, you know, you're able to check us and want to, it's really helpful. But yeah, I think that what you just brought up, Caitlin,

is a great point that even in the past, like, week of, you know, everything that's been going around of there's definitely been uh a mini pandemic of non-black people asking black people to educate them on what they should have understood going into this situation right which if it's something you're considering doing, do not do it. It is, you have access to all the same resources. You have google.com and it is on us to educate ourselves, period. It is not someone else's job to tell you what you're getting wrong,

which is the first resource that i would like to bring up and also we will be posting all of these resources to our twitter and our instagram um we already have stuff going but we'll continue adding stuff but the first resource that i wanted to share are from two activists named brianna wallace and autumn gupta and it was shared by friend of the cast, Ayo Adebri, who is, I mean, if you've heard her episode, you're already in love with her or you were in love with her because of the

millions of wonderful comedy things she's done. But she shared this particular resource from Brianna Wallace and Autumn Gupta. Here's, here's the statement that goes with the project. It says, hello, our names are Brianna and Autumn, and we're a dynamic duo committed to the mission of spreading truth, love, and awareness.

Spearheaded by Autumn, we've created this detailed resource that compiles ways to learn, inform, and act to support those in the Black community. Check it out, share, repost, blow it up. And what it is is truly wonderful. I have already started doing it myself, but it is a Google Doc that we will link you to. It is called Justice in June, and it is a lesson plan for non-black people

on how to become better allies. It is truly a gigantic act of service that this has been made available for free. There's three lesson plans available. There's 10 minutes a day, 25 minutes a day, 45 minutes a day, depending on where your life is at right now. How much time do you have to do this? Brianna and Autumn, have you covered?

So I highly, highly, highly recommend there's an inside of this Google Doc in this lesson plan alone, there are hundreds of pieces of media, of speeches, of literature, of movies of just truly the full spectrum of educational materials that they've made available. And literally all it takes is to start the commitment of the month of June to educate yourself and to better understand. So I would, as someone currently three days deep into the program, it's wonderful. And we will link that resource to you. I have already found it to be extremely helpful. Amazing. Yeah. I mean, the work, the work is on us. I can't wait to get started. So that's, that's my first resource. Incredible. Again, if this is stuff you already know, feel free to just, you know, come back next

week. But if this is new information for you, please hang, hang And we would love to pass along the resources that we have aggregated or already had, and want to pass it along. So the next thing that we want to direct you to is mutual funds and bail funds. So hopefully, as a listener, you already understand that black Americans are incarcerated at astronomically higher rates than truly anyone else. They're brutalized more. They're treated like the way that these protests have played out has been no exception. And so if you are either at a protest and want to continue to do more, or you are not able to be at a protest, you're not near one, you're not whatever it is, donating to a bail fund is an incredibly helpful way to cause an impact in an immediate sense. There are people that I'm sure you've you've

seen this happening, being arrested for literally nothing. It's been extremely humbling for me, because I've been, you know, I just I've been sheltered by my skin for my entire life. And in the past week of being like, seeing police brutality happen firsthand. I mean, if you've been extremely online during this time, you understand that what happens at the protests and what is reflected in the media is quite different and that there are thousands of people being arrested for no reason. donate to a mutual aid or bail fund. And we have in our Twitter and in our Instagram a link to a list of nationwide and some in Canada as well, mutual aid and bail funds where you can give right now.

We have already been doing so with our Patreon money and our personal money. We will continue to do so. But it is an incredible, incredible way to cause an immediate impact. And I would extend that to, we'll link these as well, but keeping an eye out for the families of those impacted. And we're talking about Breonna Taylor, who there are still, as of this recording, been no arrests made in association with her murder by police. And this goes on and on. But we will also be reposting and sharing the GoFundMes and the ways you can support people who have been extremely impacted by the past week through Bail Fund, through GoFundMMe is through cash apps. This also extends to, and we want to make sure that

we're acknowledging the black trans community who are, again, brutalized and mistreated by the police and by our society at an abnormally high rate. In this past week alone, Ayanna Dior was beaten by a mob in Minneapolis. And Tony McDade, a black trans man, was shot and killed by police just in the past week. There are also fundraising efforts going on for them. And there's also fundraising efforts going on for the black trans community at large that we will share with you. Yes. Another thing that I would encourage people to, I think that there's a lot of ways

to be an activist right now. And the immediate ways are donate and show up at a protest if you're physically able to show up at a protest. Yes. These are the most immediate ways that you can make an impact. But another,

it's committing yourself to a long game as well, where to paraphrase our dear friend, friend of the cast, friend of our life, Miles Gray, something that he expressed on the Daily Zeitgeist today was just the sentiment that this is a long game. And if you're committing yourself to performing on social media for a week, that will show. And being an ally is a journey and it involves fucking up. I think that that is something that people are afraid to do a lot, especially on social media. Like no one wants to you know make a mistake but we did it we we posted a black square before realizing wait that's like counterproductive that was not a helpful thing for us to do you know and that and and so for for those of you that have made those

missteps and those mistakes we have also made those mistakes and and we won't back off from those mistakes we will say that we were fucking wrong and it was not helpful and it was not a productive use of our platform but mistakes are constantly made the question is are you willing to learn from them are you willing to like put your ego aside and commit to learning hold yourself accountable yeah in in the long game right i think a lot of people are are hesitant to speak up or to engage in anything of what's going on for fear of making missteps and and and I think there's a hesitancy to engage with a lot of people who just need to understand that, yeah, like what you're saying, Jamie, is nobody is perfect. Mistakes will be made, but you can't let that stop you from trying because putting in the work putting in the effort is vital you don't want to take the

I thought immediately of Sofia Coppola directing the Beguiled like you don't want to take that approach of like well I don't understand I'm not a black person so I can't understand I'm going to erase black people because I might misrepresent them and that's that is absolutely the wrong approach yeah the answer is always to just educate yourself it's not easy it like and and sometimes it's like it is like a humbling experience like you're gonna fuck up i over the years have fucked up we all yeah have of course same but but i i think it is truly committing to the journey and committing to like taking shit if you fuck up like yeah i think that that's all that's all i i really have to say about it is like you're gonna fuck up and if you fuck up continue to educate yourself i think that like the most one of the most common mistakes is to just double down on being like i couldn't have

been wrong i'm woke i'm great blah blah it's like no if you're like a white lady you're gonna fuck up like if you're trying to speak to issues that you don't have personal experience with, you need to listen and you need to go in with the expectation that you don't have the perspective, you're not going to get it right. And that, you know, just accept it going in, leave your ego at the door and educate yourself. Yes, that's just it is listening it's listening it's being receptive to constructive feedback it is talking with your families it's talking to your yes fucking families it's it's just getting started you can think you have a woke family and then you ask them one follow-up question and you're like you give how much of a shit about a billionaire's property and it goes on like commit to having the hard discussion yes

be in it for the long game it's not one conversation it's never going to be one conversation it's not going to be one hang up it's not going to be one family gathering when and if we're ever allowed to gather again right it's it is a lot of conversations it is a long-term commitment indeed but it's important it's you gotta fucking do it i mean it's it's being willing to be uncomfortable to be personally uncomfortable to get something larger accomplished for sure another place if you're looking for other places to donate um there are a number of wonderful black mental health organizations that have been fundraising um in the past there's several threads i've found io has another wonderful one but one that i had known about previously and and set up a recurring donation that's another

thing if you want to keep your little ass accountable make it a recurring donation okay to commit like we were talking about it's called commitment sweetie but the boris lawrence henson foundation that is set up by taraji p h Henson in memory of, I believe, her brother is an organization completely committed to advancing black mental health on a person-to-person sense, in a larger sense of educating and is wonderful. We will also link to a number of these threads. BEAM, the Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective, is another nonprofit that is wonderful to give to. And so we will share all the resources that we have on that topic

as well. Yes, indeed. Since we are a movie podcast, don't know if you've heard listeners, I wanted to speak a little bit to some movies and other types of media you can consume to help with your ongoing education. So this is a graphic that's been shared a lot. But in case you haven't seen it, it comes from. We got it from we originally found it from Addie Weirich. a graphic that's been shared a lot, but in case you haven't seen it, it comes from, we got it from, uh,

we, we, we, we originally found it from Addie Weirich, uh, future guest of the show. Um, but yes, it,

it was aggregated by Sarah, Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein. This is a list of films to consume. These are ones on Netflix. That's what you do with films. These are ones that are available at the time of this recording, streaming on Netflix.

13th by Ava DuVernay, which, not to brag or anything, but I just re-watched last night. And a side note, I went on a little bit of a Twitter rant last night speaking to how influential media is. Brave of you to go on Twitter at this trying time, Caitlin. Congratulations.

Thank you very much. But because sometimes I question the career I've made for myself. I'm like, movies, movies aren't important important why do I like movies so much but then I remember there's yeah there's a larger discussion for us to be had um in the future about how truly I mean we've we've alluded to it I don't think we've ever had like a really really really in-depth discussion about it but how you know the propaganda uh around cops and the good cop and the bad apple mentality starts with the media we consume as children, along with other things. But it is a large contributing factor that we'll continue to discuss on the show. For sure, which it goes to show how influential media, including film, is. A lot of people will make the argument oh it's just a movie you can't take it seriously movies you know people aren't affected by what they see in the movies or

what they see on tv or you know the video games and stuff like that and of course we've you know demonstrated over the course of the years of doing the podcast that it is not true. Five million episodes. Yes. So in watching 13th last night, I was reminded of a very horrifying bit of information, which was that after the simply awful racist abomination of a movie. Birth of a Nation came out in, I believe it was 1915. There was an enormous resurgence of Klan activity because of that movie, because that movie paints the KKK as heroes and it portrays black men, which are for the most part in that movie, white men in blackface, but it paints those characters as violent criminals and it had such a major impact on the nation that it affected history right and that is the power that movies potentially have so um just it is helpful for me to be reminded of that um in any, back to this list. 13th by Ava DuVernay, American Son.

We have the whole list on our Instagram. Dear White People, the movie and the series are wonderful. See You Yesterday, When They See Us, another Ava DuVernay film. These are on Hulu, If Beale Street Could Talk, and The Hate U Give. talk and uh the hate you give um ones that are available to rent include black power mixtape clemency fruitvale station one of my favorites ever i am not your negro just mercy selma the black panthers vanguard of the revolution um and then i would also just recommend these are more sort of educational and or movies that... I see what you're... I mean, I think that in general, we recommend these movies from the specific graphic, but we also just recommend consuming black art. Like it is not, I mean, it is not just a critical thing to do to have a like a good palette uh for your media diet but it's also just like your life is bettered

by seeing black art and i guess if we're being biased american black art it just it's good shit and and it you know black artists we know we talk about are not given the opportunity at the same rate as as mediocre random white people to make movies and it's just you know if you are looking at your media diet and realize that there is not really any diversity in it here's your fucking chance to research to educate yourself and to just seek out resources and and you will be better for it you'll be happier for it it is work that doesn't feel like work because it's just like good movies yeah it's just good movies and good comedy and good books and and on and on and on um we have many recommendations that we will also link you to. And so, honestly, you know, to conclude,

we here at the Beitzelcast would like to say we think the police should be abolished. Fuck the police. There has not necessarily been a time on our program or a time where we have been, I mean, truly, like I've been in the past week alone be been educated on a wild line the line is basically you know a very upward line on on how to articulate these issues i am definitely not there i'm not going to attempt

to be there right now the The American policing system has been, it's not that it's broken, it's that it was built this way. It never worked. It was built to exclude. It was built to oppress. It was built to serve the white and the wealthy. We've known this for a long time,

but this is a moment where if you are not educated on this topic, get educated on this topic. We are also trying to be more educated on this topic. Two resources that we have already posted, but I will direct you to right now on the topic, are two studies. One is a book that is currently free. What? From Verso Books. I'm halfway through it. It is intense and it is important. It's called The End of Policing by Alex S. Vital. And it is truly just walking you through why the American policing system is not serving the people that it says it's serving. It is a system that is not serving our country, period. So that is a study based in Minnesota

that was released last year, but it's a 150 year performance review of the Minneapolis Police Department. That, wouldn't you know it, essentially reaches the same conclusion. The police, it's not that they're just ineffective. It's not that they're just ineffective it's not that they're just racist it's that that that is the point and that is built into the dna of what the american police force is and i know that i mean i think that for a lot of people and when i first came across the concept of abolish the police a couple years back, it feels like, what? But educate yourself. Challenge yourself.

I think you'll find pretty quickly that we should fucking abolish the police. We should defund the police and we'll leave you with just focusing on get involved locally know what's going on locally follow your local black lives matter chapter yes there are so many organizations already in place that know the shit you don't know that have the resources that you need to better understand and that will tell you what are your opportunities to be involved and be impactful,

whether it's as simple as signing an online petition or showing up at a protest. Contacting your representatives, calling, emailing. Or if it's the complicated long-term work that we all need to commit to. We have so much work to do, and we love you all. We're committed. We miss you. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, I don't have really anything else to say, I suppose, except that one of the things

that everyone can do is to amplify Black voices. And I would like to do that by, if you don't already follow various past guests we've had on the show on their social media channels many of them are comedians check out their comedy check out their writing check out their work top ahead i mean we've got uh lacy mos, who is truly just the queen of my heart and my brain. Naomi Ekperigen, both of the elite Bechtel cast club. Three-time guests. We've got also Demi Adjouibe, another three-time guest.

We've got Hunter Harris. We've got Maggie Mae. We've got Akilah Hughes. Lexi Grace. Sashir Zamedaeda zainab johnson want to shout out ify wadiway i want to shout out erin haynes whack who is our waiting to exhale one of i think everyone's favorite episodes it's constantly brought up as a fave danielle Radford, Madison Shepard. There's truly like, and we will continue to bring on black guests and black perspectives in the future.

And we really encourage you, if you've heard an episode with a guest whose perspective you value and like, then fucking follow them. Like, just do it. If you haven't already, and I know that many of you are like, oh, I love this guest. I pledge my life to them. And that is, you know, that's wonderful.

Do that. Continue to do that. And we will continue to be committed to bringing you the funniest, most wonderful people on earth. Joelle Monique, for fucking crying out loud. Kanice Mobley. kanice mobley kanice mobley like the list goes on and and also look forward to we truly have like a very like we have

so many wonderful people that we want to bring on the show that there's just simply not enough thursdays in the year for um but just know and and if there's also if there's people that you would like to see on the show if there are people that you would like to see on the show if there are guests that you'd like to see on the show we want to hear about it we want to know uh i think in the past like we've we've been introduced to guests by our own listeners and and that has led to classic episodes of the bechtel cast and we would also recommend that you listen to podcasts that feature black perspectives specifically and exclusively. We are simply not the only podcast on the air. And that's a damn good thing.

A wonderful movie podcast, if you're looking for a movie podcast that is specifically focused on the black American experience is Black Men Can't Jump in Hollywood. That is like a podcast that I very much love. It's so wonderful. There's also a list of other podcasts that you can listen to. I mean, we've already taken up so much of your airspace. Yes. But what we're saying is we're here.

We're listening. We want to get better. And you're here're here, we're listening we want to get better and you're here I hope you're listening and I hope you want to get better too if you're a non-black listener and if you're a black listener thank you for your patience

and thank you for being here yeah, we're forever grateful and I suppose we'll be here next week too yeah and then we go to that and then we go and then we go after that and i don't think we've explicitly said black lives matter and if you don't think so you can hit that unsubscribe button you can fuck straight out in all lives if you've let's put this at the beginning of the episode welcome to the back to the cast

no okay but like the but you know if you've gotten all lives matter argument you can fuck off of our feed we're not interested in it yeah if you're coming at us with an all lives matter argument we're gonna tell you to fuck off we don't want you to be a part of our community yeah you're you more than anybody else needs to educate yourself and figure out why you think that and realize why you are wrong. And, and then maybe we'll let you come back to us. See you on the other side of that. Yeah, we love we love we love everybody. Thanks for hanging if you did this week. And if not, we'll see you next week. We'll still be sharing all the resources and amplifying all the voices we can on the platform that we have. provided people to follow black voices black content black art other organizations to donate to and get involved with any number of things that's going to be helpful in this fight feel

free to recommend to us and we will reshare them we're here to share our humble platform with you. It's a humble one. Indeed. But it's all we have. Uh-huh. And we'll be back next week. We love you. Yep. See you then. Bye-bye. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti.

And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadson. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do,

like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist or wherever you get your podcasts. into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, everybody. This is Matt Rogers. And Bowen Yang. We've got some exciting news for you. You know we're always bringing you the best guests, right? Well, this week, we're taking it to the next level.

The one, the only, Katherine Hahn is joining us on Las Culturistas. That's right, the queen of comedy herself. Get ready for a conversation that's as hilarious as it is insightful. Tune in for all the laughs, the stories, and of course, the culture. Don't miss Katherine Hahn on Las Culturistas.

Listen to Las Culturistas on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.